The One Thing Guaranteed To Ensure You Won't Wake Up With A Hangover

In every group of friends, there's always one person who inevitably becomes the Party Mum or Dad, responsible for preventing you from getting a little too rowdy during the course of an evening.

The Party Parent's schtick can sometimes become tiresome when they tidy up your half-finished wine or try to micromanage too much, but there's not a drinker among us who hasn't been gifted a life-saving round of water from one of these good samaritans instead of the next tray of tequila shots.

Most people have been privy to the "alternate alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic drinks to stay hydrated" memo since coming of age, but the lesson rarely sticks —which is a pity, because it sure as hell works.

"I know there are a lot of hydration apps out there, but I wanted to design one that was specifically designed for the hangover prevention use case," Jacob Catalano, the 23-year-old developer from Toronto who created the app told Cosmopolitan. "So I figured the best way to do that would be by sending an almost annoying amount of provocative push notifications that remind you to drink water."

Catalano said the whole thing took him less than a week to create—it's basically just a stopwatch with a push notification generator tacked on. You tap the app when your night starts, then select the frequency that you want to get nagged, on a scale of one to five. Setting it at "one" means that the app will remind you every 100 minutes to drink water; "five" reminds you every twenty minutes.

Your liver can metabolise about one standard drink in an hour, so chugging back water has the double effect of slowing down how fast you're imbibing, while also keeping you hydrated when the detox process strips you of electrolytes and fluids.

Sure, you're going to have to hit the bathroom more regularly, but if you stick to a schedule, it's almost guaranteed you'll feel better in the morning (as long as you're not a bedwetter, that is).